Slice of Happiness
by ad victoriam
Summary: "This year. This year it was different. This time he wasn't just Basilio's champion. Now, he had a much greater role. He was now part of an army, an army full of other soldiers and companions. People whom even he would talk to. People who actually gave a damn about him. And of course, there was that accursed tactician..." One-shot


**_Of course I had to make a fic of my favorite character in Awakening, there was no doubt about it! There's not much to say but I had a lot of fun writing this. I hope you guys enjoy!_**

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He hasn't celebrated his birthday in who knows how long.

As the years passed by and that "special" date kept arriving, his enthusiasm for his own birth date kept diminishing. He didn't understand what there was to celebrate. He found it to be just like any other day. He didn't need any special festivities for it. And he had grown to ignore it so much, one year he had even forgotten it.

This year. This year it was different. This time he wasn't just Basilio's champion. Now, he had a much greater role. He was now part of an army, an army full of other soldiers and companions. People whom even he would talk to. People who actually gave a damn about him. And of course, there was that accursed tactician.

She was a strange one, he thought. She had an air of mystery to her, yet she was an open book with everyone. Well, an open book with a lot of empty pages. Amnesia had affected the tactician, causing her to be clueless about her past and the world around her. Lon'qu thought perhaps her unbridled optimism came from that. He wished he could have been in her position. There were too many horrors in his past that he wished to forget. Maybe then he would celebrate his birthday for once.

But no, his one wish was not granted. There was no mystical fairy fluttering in the woods to grant his wish. Not even Naga granted that mercy. Instead, what he was received was a wrapped up gift from that peculiar tactician.

It happened so sudden, so quick he didn't have time to respond.

When he thought he was all alone in his tent, he was sorely mistaken when his tent flap whished open to reveal that tactician woman. She came in with a wide smile on her face and bundle in her hands. Before he could protest, she quickly placed the gift on his lap and left just like that.

His still open mouth clamped shut and his attention averted to the package on his lap. It was a long, lean looking thing that held a familiar weight to it. It was wrapped in a simplistic, shade of blue and tied with a skinny piece of rope.

He stared at it for a long time until he decided he should open it. With gingerly hands, as though he would catch some sort of disease, he unwrapped the bundle. What was inside surprised him.

It was that curved, slender, sharp blade that he's come to know like the back of his hand. There was no doubt about it. It was a Killing Edge. But this one was a bit different.

The red leather usually around the hilt of the blade had been strengthened for a sturdier grip. The blade itself shone brightly and the little light that was in the tent was reflected of it and intensified tenfold. There was no doubt the blade was sharpened till the point you could slice the tips of a person's hair with extreme precision. In the hands of an experienced swordsman, the blade would be a weapon of demise.

But was truly grabbed his attention was the engraving near the very hilt of the blade. In elegant letters were his own name crafted on the blade itself. Never in his life had he seen his name look that beautiful, that amazing. To be honest, it was almost embarrassing to think about.

He played around with the sword, waving it around and slicing the air with it. He weighed it in his hands and practiced sheathing and unsheathing it. The sword was too perfect. Too well-done to seem real. It was like it was made for him. Whatever blacksmith made this must've been a true master.

But the question in the back of his mind was why? Why, of all people, was it _her_?

He had spoken to her many times since he became part of the Shepherds. He even reached the point where he actually_ liked_ her. Him, to actually enjoy a woman's company? It was almost laughable. But it was true. A truth that still surprised him and somewhat frightened him.

The fear was that he liked her _too_ much. So much that when he was around her, he would lose his calm and get that nervousness that he got when he was around women. But it was not a fear because she was a woman. He was scared of the emotion he would feel whenever she was around.

There was just something about her that kept his mind constantly occupied. His usual training session that required extreme concentration would be ruined when his thoughts were plagued by her. At night, when the nightmares would keep him awake, he instead thought about the next day and the excitement he felt in the pit of stomach of the thought of seeing her. All of this, all of these thoughts, terrified him.

So he asked the question once again. _Why?_

Did she perhaps like him as well? Did she know of his infatuation with her? Or was it just a simple kind courtesy she was known for?

These questions wracked in his head until he could take it no longer.

In a flurry, he rushed over to the training grounds where he could maybe take his mind off of things, that's what he usually did. For minutes on end he was shut off from the rest of the world, only focusing on the dummy in front of him and the blade in his hands.

When his hands became numb and the dummy in front of his was sliced to bits, he decided he was through. Now he was drenched in sweat from head to toe and breathing hard through his mouth and nose. He was beyond exhausted but this was his catharsis in a way, and he liked it.

As he opened the tent to leave, he spotted that familiar-looking silver hair in the distance not too far from where he was. It was her once again. _This woman was everywhere._

Finally looking up from her clipboard, she noticed him standing near the tent. Her face that was scrunched up from thinking, softened into a sweet smile and she gave him a little wave with her hand.

In an awkward fashion, he reciprocated it back.

Once again, her expression changed to one of surprise as her eyes wandered to the blade in his hand. Following her gaze, he looked down at his hand which still held her gift. Realizing that, his cheeks grew aflame and his embarrassment grew sky-high.

Noticing his flustered demeanor, she gave him a coy smile, which then turned into soft giggling. With a final look and a wave goodbye, she was gone.

He stared at her back until she disappeared in the sea of tents and groaned inwardly. _Great, another instance of him making a fool of himself._ He sighed and merely shook his head as he looked into the distance. Amongst the darkness of the night he could make out a town that was close by. Judging from how the town was illuminated, the town was still wide awake and lively.

As he gandered at the town for a long time, an idea struck him. It was a crazy one. One that guaranteed that he was going mad, but he suppressed those thoughts as he walked towards the town in the middle of the night with only one dominating thought in his mind amongst the others.

He wondered if the women's jewelry shop was still open.

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**_Hmmm...I wonder why he would go to a jewelry shop of all places... Thank you guys so much for reading and be on the look out for any other works I end up publishing! Once again, thank you!_**


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